The present invention relates to a roof side rail assembly of an automotive vehicle.
In a typical prior art automotive vehicle such as a coupe passenger car, a drip channel formed between a vehicle roof side rail above a door opening and the roof is covered by an upper peripheral edge of the door, when the door is closed, so that the roof is substantially flush with the upper peripheral edge of the door. In such a vehicle, since the configuration of the roof edge is associated with a glass opening configuration of a rear side glass, the configuration or assembly at the roof edge is intricate. This makes it difficult to mold that portion. Also, the upper construction of the vehicle body is complicated and difficult to assemble. This is also accompanied by problems in maintaining proper alignment among these components in assembling.
Also in such a construction, since the drip channel does not completely extend from the door opening end to the portion above the rear side window, rain water or the like can easily accumulate on the rear side window so that good visibility from the passenger compartment is not obtained. Also, special waterproofing measures are needed.
The discontinuity of the drip channel will be more specifically explained with reference to FIGS. 1, 1A, and 1B. FIG. 1 schematically shows a side view of a prior art coupe passenger car. FIGS. 1A and 1B show cross-sectional views of the car taken along lines A--A and B--B in FIG. 1, respectively. In FIG. 1A, a door frame 101 is constructed so as to project over a drip channel 102 formed integrally with a roof 103. If the drip channel 102 extends in a straight line to a position above a rear quarter window 104 as indicated by a phantom line 105, such a drip channel is displaced horizontally inwardly by a distance l from an upper end of the rear quarter window 104. The distance l corresponds to the width of the door frame 101. The rear side body has no member corresponding to the door frame 101. Therefore, the roof side member must be modified on the rear roof edge portion so that the outer periphery of the door frame 101 is flush with the rear roof side portion. This modification is very difficult in the panel molding process.
As a result, in the prior art assembly, there is no drip channel at the roof edge above the rear side glass as shown in FIG. 1B. This also leads to a poor drainage effect, poor visibility from the passenger compartment and the provision of special waterproofing measures. Thus, the structural difference between the rear roof edge portion and the front door roof edge portion as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B is not desired.
Accordingly an object of the present invention is to provide an upper side assembly of an automotive vehicle, overcoming the above noted defects.